My diet doctor says only eat 800 calories a day to lose weight
tallvesl99
Posts: 231 Member
When I type in what I weigh and what I want to weigh, MFP says to eat 1200 calories a day. I'm confused as to which one to believe. My weight was stalled when eating 1200 calories a day. Eating only 800 a day, I have lost some weight.
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Replies
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How are you measuring your calories? Do you use a food scale and log every bite? How tall are you? How long were you stalled?3
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I don't have a food scale but I'm measuring my food with tablespoons and measuring cups. I'm 5'10.5. I've been stalled for about a year.1
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I could not get my belly to BUDGE. It was like it had grown a life of its own and it wasn't moving.
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Do you exercise? Are you on any meds that could be causing this? Did your dr check your thyroid? Hm.0
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Buy some digital kitchen scales and weigh all of your solid food, including prepackaged which often weighs more than the package indicates. Measuring cups and spoons should be for liquids only. My guess is that you are eating more than you think you are which is why you are not losing.10
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tallvesl99 wrote: »I don't have a food scale but I'm measuring my food with tablespoons and measuring cups. I'm 5'10.5. I've been stalled for about a year.
There's your problem.
Buy a food scale and use it for ALL of your solid ingredients, Use the recipe builder here to log all of your recipes. Only use measuring cups for liquids.
You're 5'10", there is no way you have to eat so little to lose weight. Barring any medical conditions that we dont know about, I'm pretty certain you are eating more than you think.
How's your energy levels and hunger? Eating so few calories you'd be struggling to get through a normal day.9 -
800 calories/day is considered a VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) and only is to be undertaken by the very obese and only with constant monitoring by a physician and appropriate vitamin supplements. It is not a long term solution and does not enable spot loss like losing a belly which you mention both here and in your profile.
You are tall and 57 years old. Your body shape is going to change. If your belly is disproportionately large. then you may wish to see an OBGYN or internist to determine why. A "diet doctor" has one tune to sing and it may not be what you need. If you are not morbidly obese, and at 5'10" and 57 y.o. you would need to be close to 300 pounds, you don't need a very low calorie diet. You might need exercise, you might need some other treatment, but you don't need an 800 calorie diet.
It is doubtful that your weight has stalled at 1200 calories. It is more likely that your measuring spoons and measuring cups are leading you astray. Get a food scale, measure in grams, and you are likely to find you are eating closer to whatever maintenance is for your height, age and weight.14 -
Not that I'm a doctor or even weight specialist, but I'd really question that advice. You don't mention your weight, but I did a couple quick BMR calculations for your age and height. Your BMR is the amount of calories your body needs just to metabolize, breath, sleep, heart to beat etc. If you weighed 160 it would be 1399 calories/day and at 200 lbs. it would be 1580 calories/day plus then you have to multiply that by your activity level which brings it up even higher to reach your maintenance level. I personally would not want to eat that many fewer calories than my body needed to function. Why don't you try the 1200 that MFP calculated, log meticulously, and see if you can lose a half to a pound a week? It's harder as we get older (I'm 63) because our metabolisms just don't allow for too many calories without putting on weight, but on the other hand I'd hate to see you starve yourself to death.2
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I agree with the other posters on here...sounds like you need to get a second opinion. Remember, in every graduating med class...one of them was dead last.
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tallvesl99 wrote: »I don't have a food scale but I'm measuring my food with tablespoons and measuring cups. I'm 5'10.5. I've been stalled for about a year.
The only possible explanation for a woman 5'10.5" being stalled for a year on 1200 calories per day...is that she was eating more than 1200 calories.
Do get a food scale.7 -
Get a new doctor9
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You're probably overeating. You need to weigh solid. But anyways, a doctor should only recommend that kind of diet under close supervision and it's only for really really obese patients.1
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800 calories per day is serious starvation, and no real doctor would advice that. But the good news is that as you aren't losing weight, you aren't eating 800 calories, you're not even eating 1200 calories, you are eating at maintenance, whatever that is. Do you need to lose weight? What do you weigh?
You will lose weight by eating 1200 calories per day. But they have to be real calories. You have to use a food scale and correct database entries and log everything and hit the calorie goal consistently, preferably every day, and not go over on average weekly.
Being more precise will make it easier to get in better nutrition, which will help with satiety, which will help with compliance to calorie deficit, which is what drives weight loss. But you still have to make the effort, for real.5 -
This is a terrible advise. This is not a diet this is starving your body. I don't know your body but can tell you my experience. Years ago I was on a 1500 kcal diet. After few some time I had to cut it because weight loss stopped. Then cut it and cut it in order to keep losing weight. I was was starving my body in return body was adjusting metabolism and slowing down so when I went on normal eating you know what happened having slow metabolism- weight gain. You can't live healthy on 1000kcal not mentioning 800kcal0
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Does this "diet doctor" happen to work at a weight loss clinic?8
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To continue- now years later having much more experience I'm back on a serious diet as I let myself go over last 4 years. I'm much smarter about what I'm doing. Counted my daily needs. Cut daily kcal intake to 1700kcal as an avarage. I don't stick to it completely and I don't let my body adjust. I will keep surprising my body. Human bodies are amazing and our own bodies are our biggest challenge because they do adjust and they do it fast Some days I eat more, some day I eat less. The weight is nicely & safely dropping. 0
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You need a food scale and a new doctor perhaps a goid nutritionist.1
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1. Get a food scale and weigh everything
2. Don't forget the random bites and any oils or dressings you use
3. Familiarize yourself with the food database and what an accurate entry looks like. Things that look like "Apples, raw, with skin" are more accurate than entries that simply say "apple".
4. Be patient. Weight fluctuates naturally so don't get discouraged if you don't lose some weeks, or even gain a little.
5. Don't go for the 800 calorie recommendation unless you are morbidly obese and/or have a medical emergency that requires fast loss under supervision.1 -
I'm the same height as you lovely, I could NOT survive on 800 calories a day! I'm on 1600 and losing nicely.
Are you comfortable sharing your starting weight and goal weight?
I got down to 150lbs through diet a couple of years ago, but still didn't shift my belly because you need to be doing some strength training to reshape yourself. It got smaller, but it was still there.
I would definitely use the MFP suggestion, and get a food scale to measure rather than cups and spoons as it's more accurate xxx0 -
800 calories is nothing, no room for any fats before we get started on other foods. I definitely think you are significantly more than you think you are. If you had truly been eating that little for any period of time you'd be in bad health by now.0
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tallvesl99 wrote: »When I type in what I weigh and what I want to weigh, MFP says to eat 1200 calories a day. I'm confused as to which one to believe. My weight was stalled when eating 1200 calories a day. Eating only 800 a day, I have lost some weight.
Anyone knowing anything about nutrition will tell you 800 cals is not enough in a day.0 -
I'm right under 5'2", at the time I was around 170 pounds and my doctor advised to eat 800 calories. I had thyroid radiation that year and was gaining & gaining. I was on WW at the time and was 100% complaint (Winning Points) but still gaining. (I wasn't "gaming" the WW system either by eating low point junk either. I had Subway or can of tuna and an orange for lunch and then stir fry without rice for dinner. On the weekends I made a WW shake mix or Slim Fast shake with mix with a few frozen strawberries for lunch. I usually had a banana for a snack at work.) I did a good amount of walking at my job and would do a treadmill for 30 min after work. I remember the nurse at the endocrinologist office telling me it's the banana causing me to gain weight. sigh
A second doctor gave me similar advice. He suggested I have Slim Fast for breakfast & lunch, and then a WW/Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice frozen meal for dinner. To be fair I did ask if I should switch to frozen WW meals. (Does not make nutritional sense having a frozen meal over making my own stir fry from frozen veg but when nothing works you start hoping on marketing promises.)1 -
At almost 5'11, you need even more than 1200 calories. I think your logging is off. I started at 162 on July 31, and I'm currently 149. I ate no less than 1200, no more than 1500 and lost at a rate of 1.5lbs per week.
800 calories a day is basically nothing.
You mentioned your stomach - sorry, the weight will come off where it wants to come off. I was hoping for more to come off my top half (I hate the size of of chest) but I joke that 10lbs came off of my bottom half, and 2lb came off above the waist. It's a gamble you take.0 -
You said "diet doctor." Is this a bariatric specialist? If you are seeing a bariatric specialist, follow his/her advice, not advice from random strangers online.4
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Yeah - the first asnwer is to figure out how much you're actually eating, because at 5'10," you should not stall at 1200.
Unless you weigh under 80 pounds, but in that case no reputable doctor would be helping you lose more.
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She's not eating 1200. She's not weighing her food. Of course if she's not losing at 1200, her doctor will tell her to eat less (although 400 is a big jump).
She'll still probably be eating 1200.4 -
What kind of doctor is this if you don't mind me asking?0
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suzannesimmons3 wrote: »
There's not enough info to make that statement. The OP could be on a medically supervised VLCD.
She could also be on a regular diet but her doctor knows that her calorie logging is off to the point where her 1200 is maintenance+. In that situation, telling her to cut 400 calories would be appropriate. There a many people who do not, for whatever reason, respond well to being told that their calorie counting is inaccurate. Simply telling them to cut more calories is a way around that issue.1
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